Our Chalet Truck Camper

Our Chalet Truck Camper

Monday, August 14, 2006

Skowhegan, ME to Rangeley to the NH Mountains



Started the day early with a trip up to the annual Skowhegan Agricultural Fair. Always fun to walk around and see the 4H kids with their super clean, well trained livestock. Good grilled hot dogs at the fire departments booth and then a trek through wilderness over to Rangeley lakes area. I'd remembered years ago before Rangeley got all the gift shops so we didn't walk around very much. The old Rangeley Inn was still pretty much like it was in the early 1900s. We were headed to a campground on Capusic Lake but didn't like the looks of it at all so kept going over into NH. Found a super campground right on a small mountain lake. Tomorrow we head down to St. Gaudens National Historic Site for a tour of the sculptures and gardens and to pick up Joe's Golden Age National Park Pass. !!

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Kokadjo Maine to St. Andrews, NB


We finally have a C-less T meaning a camperless truck. At last we got the courage to take the Lance off of the F-350. Broke out the video that came with the Lance, watched it and easily took it off. Course it isn't back on yet but we haven't tried yet. It was time for an oil change and we knew the camper had to come off sooner or later. Amazing how much pep the F-350 has without a 4,000 pound camper on it.

Just back from another short RV trip, this time up to Greenville and Kokadjo, Maine and then over to St. Andrews, New Brunswick. We cut west to east through an amazing expanse of unoccupied forests, broken occasionally by old farms. Never did see any moose but Canada geese are not in any danger of becoming extinct. They are everywhere. Stayed at a campsite at Northern Pride Lodge right on First Roach Pond at Kokadjo. Sat by the lake and knit and read after taking a very long hike. No noise, not many people, just a night sky almost white with stars. Moosehead Lake is still unspoiled and worth the trip. Town of Greenville is not the quaint logging town it used to be, it's two blocks of stores now being mostly tourist shops.

We returned to St.Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada for another visit to Kingsbrae Gardens, 27 acres of every perennial and ornamental tree you can imagine, all in full bloom. We spent several hours just walking around enjoying the color and variety and then had lunch at the tea room, a sampler of salmon and fruit and pastries - not very calorie wise but delicious. Walking through St. Andrews, I was again drawn to the Cottage Crafts knit shop and couldn't resist some light weight off white wool yarn. Somehow just happened to stop in Harvey, NB at Briggs and Little yarn store and another sweater worth of yarn made it into the truck.

Since the line at US customs to get out of Canada was hours long, we drove up to Vanceboro to cross back in. Good move as we were the only one at the border! Customs went into the camper to look around but they said they enter all campers. Truck camper worked flawlessly again. Mileage is now up to 12.1 mpg fully loaded. This rig has been perfect for us, letting us get into small areas without the worry of trying to move or park a big rig. Time to plan the next trip!